Charis welcomes author Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans for a roundtable discussion of her book, Black Feminist Writing: A Practical Guide to Publishing Academic Books with Black feminist scholars Dr. Jayme Canty, Rosalynne Duff, Parker Foster, and Dr. Kisha Braithwaite. Together they will discuss the rich history of Black feminist writing to help scholars manage the stress of writing and publishing academic books.
About the Author
Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans is a Professor of Black Women's Studies in the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and affiliate faculty of Africana Studies (AAS) at Georgia State University. She served twelve consecutive years as department chair at Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, and University of Florida. Professor Evans has sustained a research interest in Black women's intellectual history for over two decades. She is author of four academic books, including Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (UF Press, 2007), Black Women’s Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace (SUNY Press, 2021), and Black Feminist Writing: A Practical Guide to Publishing Academic Books (SUNY Press, 2024). She is also co-editor of five books including Black Women’s Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability( SUNY Press, 2017). Her research is rooted in educational history but has evolved to include mental health and wellness as a way to address systemic stressors of being department chair. She began studying Black women’s wellness in 2013 and expanded her research on memoirs from investigating “the life of the mind” to practicing the life of the mind, body, and spirit. In her writing, teaching, and speaking, she works to share how Black women elders—especially educators—have navigated the relentless demands of academe.
About the Panelists
Dr. Jayme Canty (she/her) is a humanities scholar and oral history scholar who amplifies marginalized voices in her research, teaching, and activist service. She is an intersectional humanities scholar-activist with a focus on the experiences of Black women and Black queer persons living in or from the American South. Her work intends to humanize the experiences of marginalized Southern Black persons. Her research focuses on the collective narrative of how the American South shapes and molds the experiences of Southern Black queer lesbian women and persons. She has presented at several conferences about her research, such as Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies South (WGS South), National Council of Black Studies (NCBS), and National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). In 2022, she was appointed as a board member of WGS South, working as the Black Indigenous Persons of Color (BIPOC) Caucus chair. Her current research chronicles the collective narrative of Southern Black queer lesbian women and gender non-conforming persons, uncovering how the American (US) South, particularly the Christian Black Church, shapes and molds their lived experiences. Her forthcoming manuscript, Snapping Beans: Voices of a Black Queer Lesbian South, outlines the ways the South informs their intersectional identities. She is currently a professor at her alma mater, Clark Atlanta University.
Rosalynne Duff (She/ Her/ Hers) is an international educator, leader, and healer with over a decade of experience in urban education. Her research centers on Black Women's liberatory practices and transformational pedagogy. She is a doctoral student of Teaching and Learning at Georgia State University, examining Teaching and Teacher Education, developing a framework for critical contemplative pedagogy, an integration approach to educational equity, SEL, and academics.
Parker Foster is a Research Associate with the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation at the NYU Metro Center. She conducts research on various projects related to educational equity. Additionally, Parker is currently a third year Doctoral student in Georgia State University’s Educational Policy Studies Program utilizing qualitative research to explore the impact of race and gender on the education of young people, with a focus on Black girls. Parker has a Masters in Educational Policy Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Bachelors from Howard University.
Kisha Braithwaite, PhD, MSCR is a counseling psychologist and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is the Poussaint-Satcher Endowed Chair in Mental Health, and Associate Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). Also, at MSM Dr. Braithwaite is Professor and Director of Research & Scholarship for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Community Health & Preventive Medicine.
